Called Home
by My Beloved
Summary: Carlisle must give Charlie the devastating news of Bella and Edward's fatal car crash and prepare for their funeral. Will Charlie be able to handle the loss of the only person he has left?
1. Phone Call

_**A/N: Ok this story takes place after Eclipse, but in the sense that Breaking Dawn never happened. **_

"Hello," Charlie grumbled from the other end of the receiver.

"Good afternoon Charlie, this is Dr. Carlisle Cullen." Carlisle spoke coating his voice heavily with grief. He stared out the back window into surrounding forest of New Hampshire, and sighed dreading the message he knew he would have to deliver.

"Carlisle? What's wrong is Bella. . . is everything okay?" Charlie knew something was wrong; he hadn't spoken to Carlisle- beside the occasional holiday and birthday card- in five years.

"I'm not quite sure how to start," Carlisle said after a long pause. There was an almost audible _click_ on the other end as Charlie made the connection.

"No," he whispered incredulously, "Please tell me Bella's alright." Charlie's voice cracked on the last word.

"Short and to the point," Carlisle sighed. "No she's not." He waited while Charlie choked back a sob.

"What happened? I want to full story," Charlie demanded futilely trying to keep his voice from quavering.

"There was a car wreck," Carlisle spoke as if delivering well rehearsed lines. "Bella was driving and Edward was in the car. There had been a devastating rainstorm, in progress. They hydroplaned, spun out of control and crashed into a telephone pole. Edward died shortly after impact. Bella was taken to the hospital with many severe injuries to the head and neck. The outlook was not promising. In one of her few conscience moments she requested that, when the time comes, she be buried in Forks." With that Charlie's composure collapsed. "She died in surgery this morning. You don't need to worry about anything we are taking care of all the arrangements for Bella along with Edward's. I know he'd want to be buried alongside his wife." Carlisle let sorrow show clearly in his voice.

Charlie didn't say anything for the rest of the conversation- except for the occasional ragged breath- as Carlisle gave out the proper funeral information.

I lay my head against the wall with my back toward Carlisle. My staggered breathing made icy patches of fog against the back window. Edward rubbed his hand comfortingly on the small of my back. "You knew this day would have to come," he whispered into my ear.

"That doesn't make it any less hard," I sighed. Nothing could have prepared me to hear Charlie like that, broken and worthless, like he had lost the one thing that was worth living for. I knew how he felt.

"I could call Jasper if it would make it better," Edward promised quietly. I turned to look in his eyes- brilliant topaz after last night's hunt- shook my head.

With a quick kiss I ran out the back door. He knew I didn't want to be followed, so Edward watched as I disappeared into the trees. Just to be sure I covered my scent and ran deeper into the overgrowth.

Since, as a human, my mind was blocked from any form of penetration, as a vampire I can do almost the same thing with my physical body. I can shield myself from being perceived by anyone of the five senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell, and sight). The most I've learned to do in the past five years is to shelter myself from two, sometimes three, senses at a time.

I finally reached the place I was looking for and stopped. It was a small meadow that Edward and I often went to get away from the rest of his family. It's not quite our meadow back in Forks, but it's ours nonetheless.

I sat lugubriously on a damp, moss covered tree stump and looked across the vista. At the far end was a small waterfall. The water cascaded into a thin brook that ran parallel to me. Bunches of purple lilacs were dispersed throughout the spindly blades of grass swaying in the breeze.

I wrapped my arms around my shins and rested my chin upon my. How could I stand and watch Charlie, Renee, and Phil mourn over my empty coffin when I stood, unscathed, only a few feet away? Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens would be there paying their last respects along with my family and showing newspaper articles of the cataclysmic event- Alice enjoyed totaling the car for the fabricated evidence. It was now, more than ever, that I regretted the increasingly scarce emails to Charlie and Renee. The constant excuses for not visiting were aching in my memory. Renee would plead for hours while Charlie would throw me for a guilt trip and hang up clearly dejected. The phone calls were the most I could give them on a rare occasion. My voice had changed so much I had to practice making it sound rougher and more nasally before I could call. We all knew that the façade couldn't be kept up much longer. Jasper had been hounding me to end it with my parents ever since I was able to control my thirst in public, but I could never bring myself to do it.

After battling with myself for several hours, trying to justify not going back to Forks, Edward came to take me back home. We had to catch the next plane out to Seattle if we wanted to get in at a descent time.

When I got in my clothes had already been graciously packed for me. We grabbed our bags and silently trudged out to the garage.

Besides the occasional whisper from Rose of Emmett, no one talked the entire plane ride. I spent the trip leaning against Edward as he stoked my hair. Now and again he would, ever so lightly, touch his lips to my forehead. I watched to clouds roll by like puffs of smoke. Despite the crossing of time zones, I was still able to see the sunset. As it dropped below the clouds I knew we were approaching our destination and the only thing I could think was that this was going to be a very long week.

_**A/N: No not very long or very exciting, but I had to introduce the story somehow. In case you didn't get this here are some things to know: this is from Bella's POV, Edward and Bella are married, Bella is a vampire, and they are going to Bella's and Edward's "funeral" to break their ties to Charlie and Renee as it is too hard to keep up the pretext of still going to school at Dartmouth after five years.**_

_**Now it is time for you to review. Please tell me what you think. Do you like my idea? Have any suggestions? I'd love to hear from you.**_


	2. Broken

_**A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long. I've been getting ready for school and what not. Since I'm currently out on a hurricane day- woo hoo- I figured this would be the best chance I got to keep the story going. So without further ado. . .**_

Thankfully Charlie hadn't offered to pick us up at the airport so Edward and I could be out in the open without having to worry too much about being seen. Our fluid, too quick pace didn't attract the attention of any of the many hurried business persons or families sprinting to catch their flight on time.

The rental place was much of the same. The clerk was wise not to try and take advantage- which is what he clearly wanted to do- of the eight somber vampires in front of him obviously hard pressed for time. He knew we wouldn't have put up a fight if he tried to over charge us, but the look in Edward's eyes and the ominous size of Emmett assured him that his car may not come back as whole as it was leaving the lot had he done so.

Although we were driving a rental, our car was still the most ostentatious in Forks. When we got to Charlie's house the sun had already set so it was too dark for him to make out our perpetually young features. Charlie was on the phone finalizing some details for the funeral- I cringed at the word- for the following day. As Charlie descended the porch steps Edward amorously squeezed my hand and we vanished from sight.

Charlie shuffled his feet along the wet gravel as he trudged down towards the street; I'd forgotten how noisy humans were. He walked with his head down and his greatly receded hairline showed how he'd aged, but as he got closer more and more of his face became apparent. I gasped causing Charlie's head to snap up in my direction and I got the full effect of his weathered face. It wasn't the deep creases in his forehead, the engraved laugh lines, the sunspots, or the sagging around the eyes that was shocking; I had expected him to age. No, it was the frown set on his usually jovial face and the red rimming his eyes that seemed to have stained his skin, but most of all it was his glassy stare that held nothing but remorse and sorrow.

I wanted to jump out and wrap my arms around him one more time and tell him that I was fine, better than fine, I was perfect. Edward squeezed my hand even tighter and his eyes bore deep into mine. I was no longer stronger than him; there was nothing I could do.

"Good evening," Carlisle said in a flat tone.

Charlie took a few ragged breaths before he spoke. "Glad to see _you_ had a safe trip." The inflection in his voice was clear despite the guttural, rasping voice of a chain smoker that he now spoke with. With the sound of his voice I lost focus and Edward and I flickered into view for a fraction of a second. I bore my finger tips into my temples to concentrate on our essential invisibility and praying that Charlie hadn't seen us.

"I assume that all the arrangements have been made accordingly," Carlisle said before Charlie could question if he'd seen what he really saw.

_Sigh_, "Yes."

"Well then we best be off to the house, it's getting late." Carlisle added hesitantly, "See you in the morning."

As soon as the door _clicked_ behind Charlie Edward released my hand from his inescapable grasp. I threw my head back against the seat and gasped. The sudden intake of air got caught in my throat. I couldn't breath, although I didn't need to the feeling weakened my sanity. My vision became blurred and my eyes stung. I blinked at the tears that wouldn't come. Sobs built up in my chest, but I couldn't break down here in front of my family. We passed the Forks border line and I knew I only had to endure for a few more minutes.

I was out of the car and in the door before the car even stopped. I was in Edward's room without consciously deciding to go in there. Although the furniture was long gone, the thick gold carpeting would suffice. The rest of my family was still down stairs, trying to give me as much privacy as they could.

Edward came to the door and stood there debating on whether he should enter or if I needed to be left alone.

"Come in already," I mumbled in between sobs. He walked in, sat down behind me and pulled me put into his lap. I buried my face in his chest and tried to steady the rapid fluctuations in my breathing. With no avail I quickly gave up and continued sobbing.

After a while Edward put his hand under my chin so that he could look at my face. I couldn't let him see me like that, so I didn't.

"That's hardly fair," he muttered, "If I can't see your mind I at least have to see your face." With my chin still securely in his hand he was able to make a rough estimate of where my lips were, and kissed me softly until he decided that I wasn't going to respond.

"You knew we were going to have to do this eventually."

"I know I just never imagined how broken he'd look." I remembered back to when I had been broken so many years ago. My pallid skin, the circles under my eyes, the thinning in my face due to lack of eating, and my puffy eyes had all been reflected upon Charlie. He was broken beyond repair. I wondered if he had the same gnawing hole in his chest that incapacitated him every night. That idea rendered my restraint powerless. My eyes burned and my throat tightened making hyperventilation extremely difficult.

With the sudden increase of emotion Edward instinctively tightened his grasp around me and rocked me gently. The position was awkward for both of us, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Edward still couldn't see me, but he found the top of my head easily enough and rested his cheek there periodically turning his head to press his lips to my hair.

There we sat, rocking on the floor of his desolate room while I sobbed uncontrollably, but this time there was no hope that my body would give in to exhaustion and fall asleep. I'd spend the night drowning in a sea of grief and the waves that kept me down while I waited for the life preserver that would never come.

_**A/N: Poor Charlie, he never gets a break. I forgot to ask you what you thought of Bella's ability. I couldn't take the shield like it actually happened. I'd had this idea in my head long before Breaking Dawn came out; I had to stick with the game plan. So review and let me know what you think and any suggestions you might have. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but no guarantees.**_


	3. In Loving Memory

_**A/N: The lack of enthusiasm from everyone was very discouraging. I'd like to send out a huge thank you to **_**sailor alpha tomboy**_** for getting me back on track with the story. I didn't want to continue on until I got at least one review for the second chapter. So here it is the long overdue chapter three.**_

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An omnipresent gloom hung over Forks, Washington. It was raining, no surprise there, but today it only added to the sorrow. The town was desolate – a ghost town – as we drove to the funeral home. Everything around me was like déjà vu, except I was living now in high definition. Fragments of sketchy human memories pushed themselves to the front of my mind. I remembered addressing envelopes with Angela, working at the Newton's store, and stupidly buying those two motorcycles.

The last of my memories brought on a new wave of pain. The motorcycles, Jacob, the connection didn't take long to make. I hadn't seen him since he'd run off so many years ago. The wedding had come and gone; I'd suffered through the most painful, burning two days of my existence, and moved off to never hear from him again. Would he come? Was he even in Forks? I shouldn't care, but I did. I shouldn't hope that even if he was there he'd know my scent and be happy that I was there, but I did. I know the face I would see, Sam's, reflected upon Jacob's. His fists would be clenched and shaking trying to control his anger and ignore the instinct to tear us apart. Carlisle had cleared it with Sam that it was safe for us to come, but would it matter?

There were only two other cars in the lot when we arrived – Charlie's and a rental that had to have been Renee's. We walked in – I was holding Edward's hand and shielding the both of us from sight and sound – and Charlie shuddered. The appearance of six vampires into the room didn't help the already frigid air. I saw Renee leaning against the far wall at wars with herself. She wanted to stroke the polished mahogany coffin that was supposed to be containing my body. Her hand trembled furiously inches away from the surface. Just then the first of the mourners arrived.

Renee's head snapped up as she was brought back from her own personal Hell. The caravan of family and friends slammed the car doors and shuffled up the walk. Renee's eyes darted quickly back towards the coffin. She pulled in a quick gasp of air and reached a quivering hand once more towards the casket.

Her finger tips touched and a sob ripped through her chest. I turned away. The frantic beating of her heart and shallow breath were enough to shatter what was left of my silent heart, but the horror etched across her fragile face will haunt me for eternity.

I wanted more than anything to be able to comfort her like I always had, but this time it was me – or more so the absence of – that was causing her pain. Edward grabbed my bicep firmly to keep from exposing us. His eyes were those of a tormented man. He wanted to give me what a wanted, it was in his nature, but we both knew what would happen if he did.

Edward towed me out into the antechamber so that I could regain control of my emotions. By then more families started to arrive. They had to walk past us in order to enter the room with our coffins. With every solemn face and set of glassy eyes I loathed myself a little more. No one should have to suffer for our convenience, but they did and it was easier than the morbid truth.

The first to enter were the Webbers. Angela was there with Ben and I noted the glimmer of gold on her slender right hand. Next were the Newtons. I was not surprised to see Mike tagging along behind; I'd always guessed that he'd come back to this forsaken little town. The Stanleys shuffled in not far behind. I picked out the Mr. and Mrs, but Jessica was nowhere to be found. No surprise there I thought grimly. The late comers, including a disheveled Ms. Cope and the hospital staff, had all arrived and everyone gradually meandered into the chapel.

"Don't make me go in there, I don't want to be around all those people. You know with the smell and all," I whispered. It was an extraneous effort considering no one could ever hear me had I been inclined to yell.

"Of course not love. I would never do anything so wretched. I'm merely here for support." Edward seemed offended that I would ever think that he would make me do something that I didn't want.

I sighed with relief. I needed his support now, but with all the added emotions and tears from the chapel I would have drown in misery.

As the service started I could hear a poor rendition of _Clair de Lune_ playing from behind the thick pine double doors, this was a special request from Edward. The next twenty-six minutes and nineteen seconds were the worst I'd ever had to endure. I was composed of individuals taking turns to speak about what great people we were and how much we'd be missed. It was heart wrenching. I wanted to burst through the doors and shout "here I am," to make the torment stop. Although Edward had lived in Forks longer the bias was obvious.

Alice was the first one out of the chapel. She inconspicuously walked over to us and ensured me that "it'd all be over soon." With that we filed out to the cars to start the procession.

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_**Finally a chapter three has arrived! I'm so completely swamped with school work and I'm sorry for negligence. However, I can guarantee that the more you review the faster I'll write so please review.**_


	4. Unexpected Guests

_**A/N: I can't believe I've actually found time to write. I know it's kind of a downer so far, but that's the nature of this story. It's kind of a tragedy in some ways, and I promise there will be action to come. So enjoy.**_

I watch the cars as they file up the street, and it is now evident why the town had seemed so empty before; everyone is here. Edward and I ran to remain inconspicuous so we had arrived first.

The cemetery in on the edge of town and is encompassed entirely by trees, on the furthest edge I can see our tombstones side-by-side. They stand as silent stone tribunes of our seemingly short lives. Mine reads "Mrs. Isabella Marie Swan Cullen", and despite our situation I can feel my immobile heart aspiring to drum against my chest at the sight of Edward's name at the end of mine.

That sensation is short lived, though, as I watch our mourners trudge up the walk with hunched shoulders like they are carrying the weight of their grief on their backs. As the town huddles under a postage-stamp-tent Edward and lean against a nearby tree and watch as the caskets arrive.

Charlie, Mike, Mr. Newton, Ben, and Mr. Webber carry mine. Following behind are Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, and two doctors carrying Edward's. Once everything is settled the service starts.

With the start of the service comes enumerable sobs followed by the steady flow of tears. I can't take this. I slump down into a squat and put my face in my free hand. Edward follows suit. I can see my pained expression reflected in his eyes as he stares.

"We can always leave if you want," he says reassuringly. I shake my head and sigh. "Just remember to breathe deeply and concentrate. A sudden reincarnation would not help anyone." I simply nod knowing full well that I can't speak without my voice cracking.

Taking Edward's advice I squeeze his hand harder and concentrate solely on remaining imperceptible. Breathe in – I focus on the familiar scent of my family, but the smell of the humans burns my throat – breathe out. Breathe in – I smell the lilacs and roses surrounding the burial – breathe out. Breathe in – a fresh gust of air sends a new scent crashing into me almost knocking my backwards. It is revolting and dirty, but vaguely familiar. That's when I see them, not even a hundred yards behind the tree line, three pairs of glinting eyes.

"No," I inaudibly mouth as Edward's body tenses giving me my answer. "But . . . how? We need to leave before they . . ."

"They already know we're here." Edward responds through clenched teeth.

A slight rustling in the trees catches my attention as the three Quileute men approach the crowd. Sam is the leader flanked by Embry to the left. On his right is the shadow of my best friend. His eyes are cold and hard, his jaw and fists are clenched with bone crushing intensity, and his mouth is set in a fierce line, a mockery of the smile I once knew. This Jake is no longer mine – if I ever did have some sort of illusionary claim on him – he is now Sam's Jacob, cut and refined like the rest of them.

It doesn't take them long to catch our scent since it is undiluted by the mass of humans like the rest of my family. Jacob's head whips around in our direction and glares directly at me. His eyes scrutinize us as if he can see through my shield. I wonder, "Can he see us?"

"No I don't think so but they can definitely smell us. Although your scent is different he is undeniably sure that you're here," Edward hesitates debating on what he wants to say. "He's going to try to talk to you before we leave," he finally adds with reluctance.

I'm not sure which emotion crossed my face, but whichever one it was seemed to be Edward's desired outcome. It was probably the fear, shock, or disgust the warred against the hope, joy, and acceptance that also churned through my body. I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. We sat the rest of the service in silence as Jacob's eyes stayed fixated on our illusionary figures.

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_**A/N: Hmm so the boys are back in town. I'm sensing some confrontation in the future. I'm definitely not the confrontational type so this should be interesting. Sorry this chapter is so short I couldn't add anymore without going into the Jake and Bella's conversation, and that would make this really long. Therefor you get this. This weekend is the first weekend I have off in over a month so hopefully I can get another chapter up then, again no guarantees. Hoped you enjoyed this one, and PLEASE REVIEW!!! (I'll be more inclined to write if I know my stories are actually being read =])**_


	5. Poll

Hey everyone,

With the finishing of my latest story, Trick-or-Treat, I'm going to need something to work on. If you would like me to finish Called Home you can vote for it on the new poll on my profile. There are also three other story ideas that you might also like. Which ever one gets the most votes is what I'll write next so vote and make your voice heard.

Thanks

MyBeloved


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